Sanctuary Group Meets, Plans Housing For Refugees

August 22, 1985|by CHERYL WENNER, The Morning Call

A group of local church affiliates met again last night to continue planning a program that would provide local housing and protection for one or two Salvadoran and Guatemalan refugees, if and when a U.S. church declares sanctuary.

About 35 people attended the third monthly meeting of the Lehigh Valley Sanctuary Support Group last night in the First Presbyterian Church, Bethlehem. The group was formed to bolster the Lehigh Valley Friends Meeting in the event a sanctuary for the refugees is declared.

Under federal law, asylum is provided for people who believe that they are persecuted in their native lands, but the Justice Department has granted only a handful of the requests from refugees of El Salvador and Guatemala. The department is adhering to policies of the Reagan administration, which supports the government of El Salvador and Guatemala and questions whether the refugees are politically persecuted in their homelands.

Last year, just 328 of the 13,373 requests from Salvadorans for asylum in the United States were granted and hundreds of refugees are deported back to El Salvador each month.

Two "safe" houses, where the refugees would move after two weeks at a church sanctuary, have been donated, along with medical care and free legal advice, according to one of the group's co-conveners, Barbara Lloyd.

Lloyd said the support group is now seeking volunteers to stay with the refugees around the clock during their stay at the church and others to translate, provide food and clothing and help organize speeches and lectures to enable the refugees to tell their story.

And, she said, according to guidelines established by the national sanctuary organizing group, at least $2,000 should be available for each refugee being housed, in case of emergency. Nearly $2,500, plus a pledge of $185 per month, has been collected so far to support one or two refugees for as long as they are in the Lehigh Valley.

Co-conveners of the group are Lloyd, Helen Hammarstrom, a member of the Bethlehem Quaker congregation, and the Rev. Bruce Tishler of Mahanoy City, chairman of the Lehigh Presbytery's Peacemaking Task Force. At last night's session, Gerald Swaim was elected recording secretary and the Rev. Jo Clare Hartzig was named publicity chairman.

Lloyd announced last night that a refugee caravan will be traveling through Northeastern Pennsylvania in late October, stopping in Scranton, Bethlehem and 10 other cities. On Oct. 13, to show support of the sanctuary workers facing trial proceedings in Phoenix, Ariz., two days later, the group will hold a candlelight vigil. The location of the vigil will be announced.

Activities at the Phoenix trial weigh heavily in the thoughts of the local sanctuary support group members. Lloyd said last night that "Judge Earl Carroll, in a June pre-trial hearing in the Phoenix sanctuary trials, ruled that is legal for the government to send paid informants in to church worship services, prayer meetings, and Bible study groups to listen and secretly record what is said.

"Church leaders around the country are very disturbed by the ruling," she said. "A church is the one place in the world where you might want to sit with your friends, pray, listen to a sermon, read a Bible and feel safe, and it's unthinkable that you might not be able to trust that what is being said isn't going to be misinterpreted by spies in your midst."

The group's next meeting will be held Sept. 26 in the Asbury Methodist Church, Springhouse Road, Allentown, and is open to the public. Inquiries and pledges may be sent to the Interfaith Peace Resource Center, 44 E. Market St., Bethlehem.